*'''November 2012:[[File:Clean Cooking Stoves for Vietnamese farmers - November 2012|right|350px]]''' Since 1997 [[Vietnam Solar Serve]] has been testing and making solar cookers, and recently have developed their own clean cookstove. They explain; During the summer months the use of solar cookers is for many people a blessing. But after all those years there was still one major question: "But when it's raining, what do we do?" The main answer was to encourage people to return to their old way of cooking, but it never satisfied us. In 2007, during an exhibition in Nepal they showed us several clean cooking stoves. We talked with some people about their benefits. Was this the answer to the above question and a good alternative? After several years of researching and asking around, finally in 2011, we came up with our own model. It worked so well, that local farmers near Hue city (Vietnam) became very interested. In November 2012 we made 170 clean cooking stoves for them and when they received them they were very excited. So, it became a great alternative when there is no sun! Watch this short video clip!

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[[File:Santa_Maria_Dense_Fronteres_November_2012.jpg|right|344px]]

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*'''June 2012:''' Two representatives from [[Santa Maria Sense Fronteres]] spent 25 days living and working with the Integrated Cooking Method (ICM) in a little community of 400 people in [[The Gambia]]. We promoted solar, efficient and retention cookers, using participative methods and involving all the community. A young local woman was interviewing between June and December the ten families who tested the integrated cooking system. Our main objective was to discover how and how much the ICM can improve the life of the rural communities and the environment.

*'''November 2012:''' CEDESOL Promotes Integrated Cooking Method - The [[Integrated Cooking Method]] (the combined use of solar, fuel efficient biomass and retained heat cooking devices) is the cornerstone of [[David and Ruth Whitfield]]’s [[CEDESOL Foundation|CEDEDSOL]] Ecological Stoves for Better Living project in [[Bolivia]] and [[Paraguay]]. This CEDESOL project includes local production, promotion, ducation, distribution, installation and maintenance of improved cooking devices. The project will replace traditional inefficient wood stoves in rural and urban areas, with efficient designs, which have been shown to reduce fuel-wood consumption above 60%. This program is designed to generate Voluntary (verified) Emissions eductions (VERS) by installing and monitoring more than 50’000 Ecological Stoves in Bolivia and Paraguay. VERS to reduce the cost of the stoves to users will be provided by the foundation, [http://www.myclimate.org/carbon-offset-projects/international-projects/detail/mycproject/10200.html myclimate]. Without carbon finance obtained with VERS in association with Foundation My Climate, CEDESOL’s beneficiaries would not be able to access the program and receive the cookers and education. CEDESOL also acknowledges the generous assistance of [[Kyoto Twist Society]] and [[Green Microfinance]].

*'''November 2012:''' CEDESOL Promotes Integrated Cooking Method - The [[Integrated Cooking Method]] (the combined use of solar, fuel efficient biomass and retained heat cooking devices) is the cornerstone of [[David and Ruth Whitfield]]’s [[CEDESOL Foundation|CEDEDSOL]] Ecological Stoves for Better Living project in [[Bolivia]] and [[Paraguay]]. This CEDESOL project includes local production, promotion, ducation, distribution, installation and maintenance of improved cooking devices. The project will replace traditional inefficient wood stoves in rural and urban areas, with efficient designs, which have been shown to reduce fuel-wood consumption above 60%. This program is designed to generate Voluntary (verified) Emissions eductions (VERS) by installing and monitoring more than 50’000 Ecological Stoves in Bolivia and Paraguay. VERS to reduce the cost of the stoves to users will be provided by the foundation, [http://www.myclimate.org/carbon-offset-projects/international-projects/detail/mycproject/10200.html myclimate]. Without carbon finance obtained with VERS in association with Foundation My Climate, CEDESOL’s beneficiaries would not be able to access the program and receive the cookers and education. CEDESOL also acknowledges the generous assistance of [[Kyoto Twist Society]] and [[Green Microfinance]].

In the 1990s, Kenya was experiencing deforestation at a rapid rate. The lives of the people became more and more tied to the need for obtaining wood for cooking and water for drinking. Women spent many hours of each day in these activities. However, there was abundant sunshine that could be used for cooking. In 1994, Dr. Wilfred Pimentel of the Rotary Club of Fresno visited all the Rotary Clubs in Kenya seeking ways to help these women who live in abject poverty. To address the issue of deforestation and reliance on fuelwood for cooking, Dr. Pimentel started the first solar cooker project with the Rotary Club of Nairobi East. Solar cooker technology was taught to a group of Kenyans in two days of classes using their pots and food. This was the beginning of the spread of this technology, the addition of "Rocket Stoves" and Water pasteurization indicators followed and became part of the integrated solar cooker program that has now spread to sixteen different sites on five continents.

News and recent developments

June 2012: Two representatives from Santa Maria Sense Fronteres spent 25 days living and working with the Integrated Cooking Method (ICM) in a little community of 400 people in The Gambia. We promoted solar, efficient and retention cookers, using participative methods and involving all the community. A young local woman was interviewing between June and December the ten families who tested the integrated cooking system. Our main objective was to discover how and how much the ICM can improve the life of the rural communities and the environment.

November 2012: CEDESOL Promotes Integrated Cooking Method - The Integrated Cooking Method (the combined use of solar, fuel efficient biomass and retained heat cooking devices) is the cornerstone of David and Ruth Whitfield’s CEDEDSOL Ecological Stoves for Better Living project in Bolivia and Paraguay. This CEDESOL project includes local production, promotion, ducation, distribution, installation and maintenance of improved cooking devices. The project will replace traditional inefficient wood stoves in rural and urban areas, with efficient designs, which have been shown to reduce fuel-wood consumption above 60%. This program is designed to generate Voluntary (verified) Emissions eductions (VERS) by installing and monitoring more than 50’000 Ecological Stoves in Bolivia and Paraguay. VERS to reduce the cost of the stoves to users will be provided by the foundation, myclimate. Without carbon finance obtained with VERS in association with Foundation My Climate, CEDESOL’s beneficiaries would not be able to access the program and receive the cookers and education. CEDESOL also acknowledges the generous assistance of Kyoto Twist Society and Green Microfinance.

April 2007: Former Solar Cookers International Executive Director Bev Blum demonstrated solar cookers and built solar CooKits at a conference titled "Killer in the Kitchen: Indoor Air Pollution and Appropriate Technology Solutions" held last November in Alabama. The purpose of the conference was two-fold: to spotlight the global problem of indoor air pollution related to smoky cooking fires, and to explore proven appropriate technology solutions. Several technologies were presented, including fuel-efficient Rocket stoves, heat-retention cookers, and solar cookers. Solar Oven Society’s Martha Port provided additional information on solar cooking and solar water pasteurization. "There was a strong consensus that the ideal way to address smoke hazards is integrated introduction of fuel-efficient stoves, solar cookers and heat-retention cookers," Blum writes. "It was a great experience." The conference was sponsored by Servants in Faith and Technology (SIFAT), the Sparkman Center for Global Health, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham Framework Program. SIFAT offers courses on a range of topics -- including appropriate technology, international health, and microenterprise development -- from a Christian perspective.

Experience with integrated cooking in Bolivia

Technology transfer is more a social issue than a technological one.
That is one reason our methods utilizes hands on works shops followed by
a six-month documented use period to help force the development of new
habits. Once relatives and neighbors see the "home improvements" and
hear from their friends the benefits, they all want the devices too.
In that way, demand is created, as well as a cultural base of people
that basically understand the technology. The the next phase is short
demonstrations for groups of people that want to buy the devices. That
is where we are now.

Our vision evolved from just solar cookers, to solar cookers and
efficient stoves and then solar cookers, efficient stoves and heat-retention cooking, used in combination. Thus the term, integrated cooking systems, which I think was coined by Wilfred Pimentel after returning
from two of our Integrated Cooking systems courses.

I think several years back Dean Still referred to their research at
the Aprovecho Institute in Oregon, that indicated that retained heat cooking was the single most significant cooking variable that could immediately reduce the ills related to cooking with biomass fuels, even without improved cookstoves.

We took those indications to heart, but continue to encourage
the use of solar cookers and efficient wood cookers, because used
together they reduce by more than 80% the fuels used in traditional
methods, as well as reducing other ills associated with traditional
cooking, and we have found that it is just as easy to introduce the
technology all at once as it is one at a time.

Many folks are still skeptical of solar cooking. We have learned that when we begin by acknowledging that solar cooking, in any form, will not completely replace traditional cooking, it makes more sense to the people. For instance, in developed countries, you might have a toaster, a small electric toasting or warming oven, a gas stove and oven combined, and a microwave oven, all useful for specific cooking tasks. This comparison helps people understand that the solar cooker is not intended for full-time cooking. The fact that the solar box cooker can be used as a retained heat cooker, when there is no sun has been a real boost to our efforts in Bolivia. We believe that this is one of the reasons we have had such success getting people to develop the habit of using the solar cookers. We have folks that cook at night for their husbands who work the graveyard shift using the solar cooker in heat-retention cooking mode! They bring the food to boil, put the pots inside the solar cooker and let their husbands take the food out at midnight when they are leaving for work. Those ladies are so happy not to have to cook at 11:00 at night!

In the case of the solar cookers, since discovering their double utility the number of users who use the solar cooker 5 to 7 days a week increased from 77% to 89%. For us this is very significant. The solar cooker/heat-retention cooking users report a yearly average of 65% fuel savings.